Have you ever just goofed around and randomly surfed Facebook? I dont mean the people you know, but rather all the FB beings whom you dont know, but somehow someone else is friends with…. who are then friends with someone else, ad infinitum, etc.? It’s really mind boggling. Somehow there is this invisible algorithm, maybe like that “6 degrees of separation” Kevin Bacon thingy, that apparently governs how it is that something initially so small and knowable can grow geometrically into gazillions of other people with totally different lives, different friends, disparate interests but still their own special brand of clever or crude Facebook banter that  characterizes our close intimate relationships and social cliques. It’s not Facebook per se that fascinates me. It’s the individual people and personas that distinguish themselves as we all sway together in the online ether (net) like colorful bits and bytes of coral sea life on a some massive unknowable tropical reef. Like high school, the reef is full of immature jerks, jocks, bullies, show-offs and nerds. Like college, there are intellectuals (well, maybe a few), hard partiers, sullen poets, serious musicians, clowns and court jesters. Like life, there are babies born,  illnesses to be overcome, new homes to be built, and family members to be loved, mocked, reviled, honored, and eventually taken care of. We all sway in the same sea storm, move in unison with the prevailing winds of time and change itself. It is a sad, funny and ultimately beautiful thing this Facebook reef. By the way, I know that sometimes I am a Clown Fish and other times I’m more like a Hermit Crab. I hope that not too confusing for the colony.   Cliff Mazer, Ph.D.